Equivalent Exchange
by Taskemus
Summary: Sequel to Indifference. Edward returns to the Rockbell's after Alphonse's death only to find a familiar face waiting for him. . .


Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

Notes: This is the sequel to Indifference. If you have not read that, I suggest you go read it first.

Pinako meets Edward at the station, wordlessly leading him back down the path towards her house. Ed doesn't speak, doesn't ever want to speak again.

Winry is sitting at the table, her hair loose and uncombed; at the counter stands a tall brown-haired woman in a lavender dress and a white apron, cutting up tomatoes with a homely smile.

Edward's first reaction is to transmute his automail into a sword and lunge. The woman pulls back, eyes widened, and she drops her knife instead of using it as a weapon. Her eyes are riveted on Edward's automail – _she's going to rip it off_, Ed thinks frantically – and he swings his flesh arm up. She blocks the punch weakly, and Edward steps forward.

Envy. You killed my brother. I can't forgive you for that.

She stares at him still, and Winry jumps up, pulling Edward away.

Ed, no! This is your mom.You don't understand! It's not human. There's a homunculus – a shapeshifter – the woman begins, smiling nervously, in a silken voice that is somehow more human than Sloth's ever was. Edward reaches his left arm over, trying to join it with his right in a devastating clap.

Maybe you'd better leave the room, Pinako suggests to her, and Envy nods. She looks small, and a little afraid, like she's lost in something that is over her head. For a second, Edward doubts his theory, but then she looks over at Ed as she leaves the room, a calculating gaze, and this look is enough to convince him otherwise.

Envy sits down on the couch in the next room, sipping a cup of tea. Pinako and Winry are both silent as Winry swiftly unattaches Ed's automail arm.

She just came walking up the path last Wednesday looking for you, Alphonse, and your house. Nearly fainted when she saw her own gravestone, but we've explained everything to her already. Pinako says. She said she'd walked all the way from Lior.Grandma put her in my mom's old room, Winry adds, looking at the floor, and I found her when I was looking for some automail parts that I left in there. We talked. She looks up. She is your mother, Ed. We talked about things that only she could have known about.

Edward doesn't ask what. The woman who might be his mother smiles at him from the other room.

You died, Ed tells her bluntly, because he isn't sure if he trusts Winry's story or not.

The woman murmurs something in response, softly, to the floor, a long line of vowels to Ed's ears.

When she looks up, Edward can see that she is shaking, but still gently smiling.

Alphonse brought me back. Equivalent Exchange.

At the mention of his brother the reality hits him, hard, like a punch in the stomach. _Al's dead._

Then his mother's words sink in. He – he gave _himself_ in exchange?

Trisha Elric nods, looking like she is about to cry, and Ed is baffled.

But he couldn't have. Envy and Lust killed him, I was _there_. Anyway, we promised each other we weren't going to try to bring you back again.

Edward stands up. Besides, it takes time to draw a transmutation circle, at least for human alchemy. And all that text... pale white and black with false citrine, imperfect white and red' or whatever it was. He couldn't have memorized all that. And ingredients, where –

Edward stops speaking suddenly with a little gasp, as if the words are caught in his throat. He sits back down and sinks backwards into the cushions next to his mother, slowly.

He doesn't speak for half a minute – the realization is making the words swirl around in his mind, and his heart is beating faster than normal. When he does speak the words come in shudders, his eyes still closed tightly.

I did it. _I _created you. There was a transmutation circle on the floor, I just assumed it was the one that killed the homunculi. Part of his blood seal was still there! I saw it later, it was still there. He must have been alive when – I was trying to kill Lust, I got her into the center of the circle and she dragged Al's body with her – _he was still alive_ – and it was a human transmutation circle.

Edward lowers his voice to a quiet whisper, and his mother leans over to catch the words. I used Lust's body and Al's soul. I created you, and I killed Alphonse. Damn it! he shouts, raising his voice momentarily, then lowering it again as he reaches for his mother.

Trisha holds him as he cries. She is a mixture of scents: Alphonse, the smell of sweet tomatoes and wild grasses; Pinako, the soap in the Rockbells' kitchen and a slight whiff of soft perfume; Winry, floral shampoo, sweat, and metal, and then something that is completely her own, feminine, nurturing, and comforting, a familiar scent. Her shirt smells musty and old, reeking of mahogany – Pinako must have stored it away somewhere before he and Alphonse burned the house.

You've gotten taller, his mother says.

Edward doesn't respond, just hugs his mother shamelessly, grinning as much as he can bear to grin.

I did it once, didn't I? Let's sacrifice the homunculi and get Alphonse back.

With these words, Trisha holds him tighter.


End file.
